Akane wondered how to break it to Alicia that no, she had not considered any sort of escape plan.

Alicia guessed. "Should have known. You just rushed in because you found out we were in trouble?"

The radio was, unfortunately still on. Yoseph took the opportunity to gloat and pretended he wasn't worried that Akane just took three Ravens down within seconds. "Well, well, well Akira. It looks like you have served your purpose after all. It looks like you found the Fusion Nemesis for me."

Akira paled more and had no comeback. Alicia, in absence of a comeback snapped, "You aren't getting her either!"

Akane saw Alicia and Akira's reactions but since she didn't have a radio at the moment was left in the dark as to what they were hearing from the radio. She decided to focus on wiping the floor with the new Raven reinforcements showing up.

Meanwhile at Neuron HQ, Yoseph Calvert was having a great time. He would not admit it but he could not resist a good monologue and always wanted to try it for himself.

"The Nemesis behavior so far was to seek out their Legionis. I hypothesized that in the absence of a Legionis to be sought out, the next best thing was you. I know exactly where you are. There is nowhere for you to run where the Ravens cannot find you. You have been-"

"...your call is important to us! Please hold "

"What is this?" Yoseph said. He was answered only by smooth jazz music. "Hey!"

Back in March, Olive and Hal had been shooting the breeze. "Hey, Olive? What is the single most annoying sound you can think of? Just off the top of your head?"

Olive gave the long suffering groan of a person with a pet peeve larger than the threat of the astral plane. "Oh my gosh. You know that dreadful phone tree system that city hall has?"

Hal's drone bobbed. "Yeah? I always got lost in it if I didn't call for a specific extension and sometimes even if I did. That monstrosity belongs to the last century. The vending machines are pleasant and intelligent. They have no excuse for that bad of an automated service."

"That hold music haunts my nightmares. I always want to punch something when I hear that voice say, 'Thank you for calling Union! Your call is important to us!' It is the biggest lie in the world."

Akane saw both Alicia and Akira become very confused by the smooth jazz. She wished she knew what just happened.

Hal's drone flew down from above like some little yellow digital fairy godfather to grant her wishes. "All right! I put Yoseph on hold, we only have so much time until they restore communications, so let's get out of here!"

Akira seemed to regain some awareness of the surroundings when he felt Akane grab his hand.

Alicia switched off her radio. "...lead on then. If the Ravens are cut off from communications, we stand a chance of slipping away now. Do you have a way of keeping our trackers from giving us away?"

Akane started pulling more insistently at Akira which was twin code for, 'Move it before I pick you up and carry you.' Akira understood.

Hal impatiently bobbed ahead. "Oh yeah, we have some signal jammers going too."

The team of four had zero trouble with any Ravens they ran across, but it was a long way to somewhere they could escape the many cameras of the Ark. Hal led them down into a parking garage. Finally they heard Hal say, "All right! There are some walls here that are not load bearing. We can have Akane open a path through one, but we need to buy time. Got ideas for misdirecting the squad after us?"

Alicia looked around the spot. She had one idea. "Is that a gate over there?"

Akira said, "We should probably close that."

Alicia had a mischievous smile. "Nope!"

Not more than a minute later, the Ravens flooded into the parking garage. There was a gate to the astral plane to the left and a gaping hole torn through the wall to the right. The Ravens split up to cover both potential escape routes. Half of them ran into the Astral Plane. Half of them ran into the hole.

Imagine the camera panning upwards. Akane through use of her claws and abuse of the laws of friction stuck to a corner of the ceiling. Alicia hung from Hal's drone. Akira held on to Akane's back.

They all dropped down, doubled back, and opened a hole through the other non-load bearing wall to escape the garage and the eyes of the government.

Notes: I imagine putting Yoseph on hold is somewhat fitting. I had to fight autocorrect a lot on this chapter for some reason.